Boston Bruins: 2 draft picks named to USA WJC preliminary roster
By Luke Ryan
The Boston Bruins have seen two of their draft picks named to the Team USA preliminary roster for the 2020 World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic.
As expected, the Boston Bruins’ 2019 first round pick (30th overall) John Beecher got the nod, as well as 2018 fourth round pick (119th overall) Curtis Hall. Both players occupy the same center position but thankfully find their path to selection slightly clearer with no Jack Hughes in the way.
While Team USA could still call upon Jack Hughes, it’d require the New Jersey Devils to release him from their NHL roster, which given he’s managed 12 points through 26 games is unlikely, even with the Devils sitting firmly in the bottom end of the standings.
John Beecher has impressed the Boston Bruins at Development Camp, at Training Camp and now since getting his season underway with the University of Michigan. In their program, he’s managed 9 points in 16 games thus far; not bad for an NCAA rookie!
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Curtis Hall, meanwhile, is a bit more of an interesting Boston Bruins prospect; he was drafted in the fourth round so you can safely say that expectations aren’t as high as those around Beecher. However, he’s shown himself to be very able to contribute and continually finds himself named to Team USA junior camps.
At 6’3″ and nearing 200 lbs, the 19 year-old certainly has size on his side and is has put up 5 goals and an assist in his 8 games thus far with Yale University. Compare that to last season’s 5 goals across the whole campaign and it’s safe to guess that’s he’s been working on his shooting game.
With any luck, these two will both be headed to the Czech Republic, hopefully to play against fellow Boston Bruins prospect, Jakub Lauko who’ll likely turn out for the home nation, provided he recovers fine.
It’s always a feather in the cap to be named in a national squad, even if it’s simply the preliminary roster. We’d put easy money on the fact that John Beecher makes the final cut; Curtis Hall will have to work a little harder, but a little hard work never hurt anyone.
The more hard work these young guys put in now, the better stead it stands them in to one day appear in Boston Bruins colors. We certainly will be needing some centers in the coming years, given how old Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci are!
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Let’s hope the final roster announcement in a few days time has both of their names on the list.